


Baby, It's Cold Outside

by littlervoice



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Humor, M/M, brief mentions of previous niall/omc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 14:19:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3695504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlervoice/pseuds/littlervoice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“We’re not really gonna sit here in silence all day are we?” Harry asks. “Because the longer we avoid talking to each other the more awkward it’s gonna become.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“And no, you asking me for the Wi-Fi password doesn’t count as conversation,” Harry points out when Niall opens his mouth to speak.</i>
</p><p>After a one night stand, Harry and Niall get snowed in together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby, It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the film Two Night Stand

“Look, Niall, don’t you think it’s time for you to start dating again?”

Niall sighs at the question. It’s a question both Liam and Sophia had been asking him more and more often as of late. And he gets it, he does. He’s sure it’s just as awkward for the two of them as it is for him when they barge through the flat door after a date with their lips attached, ready to take it further, only to find Niall sat on the sofa in his pyjamas, stuffing his face with last night’s pizza.

It’s not wrong for Liam and Sophia to want some time to themselves, and Niall understands that him being in a relationship would definitely make it easier for them. But as he keeps telling them: he’s just not ready.

“Are you sure?” Sophie asks. “Because you know we love you, and we enjoy spending time with you, we really do. But–”

“People are starting to think we’re in one of those polygenic relationship things,” Liam butts in.

“Polygamous, babe,” Sophia corrects.

“Right, that. And like Sophia said; I love you, but your dick just does nothing for me, mate, I’m sorry.” Liam comes to sit down beside Niall. “There’s this guy at work who’s single, I could set you up with him if you like?”

“No, Liam, I already said. I’m not ready for another relationship yet.”

Liam sighs and stands up, signalling his resignation at the topic as he heads off towards his and Sophia's bedroom.

“It doesn’t have to be a full-on relationship, you know?” Sophia takes Liam’s place on the sofa, turns to face Niall with a tentative smile before continuing, “Have you considered a one night stand?”

Niall gives her a stunned expression. A one night stand! That’s not what Niall does, not his kind of thing at all. He opens his mouth to tell Sophia this but she stops him.

“No, just hear me out. I think the whole reason you’re so against the idea of dating again is because you’re scared of rejection, but if you have a one night stand you don’t have to worry about all that. The best thing about it is both parties know what they want, that it’s just a casual thing,” she says. “Besides, if it all goes to shit you’ll probably never see the guy again anyway. It’s win-win, if you ask me!”

Niall’s not sure if her argument makes sense, but he can’t help but consider the option. It _has_ been a while since he got laid, his dick would definitely appreciate it.

“You make a good case and all, but how am I supposed to pick who to do it with?” Niall asks. “As easy as it would be, I’m not just gonna walk into a club and take home the first person who throws themself at me. And I’m definitely not doing it with someone I know.”

Sophia gets this look on her face as if she’s appalled at the idea. “Of course not, idiot,” she says as she reaches into her handbag and pulls out her iPad. “That’s why you use this.” After tapping the screen a few times, she dumps the iPad on Niall’s lap and points at the screen.

It’s a dating website. Something Niall had never considered signing up to in a million years. But now that the sign-up form is open in front of him he can’t help but start filling in his details. _Nothing has to come of it,_ he reminds himself, _there’s no harm in just creating a profile._

“Niall’s joining a hook-up website!” Sophie calls over to Liam as he comes back out of the bedroom in his pyjamas and wanders over to the kitchen.

“Nice one, congratulations, mate,” Liam calls back with a quick thumbs up and a grin, and Niall can’t help but cringe at the crudeness of it all.

Once he gets to the bottom of the registration form there are what seems like a million-and-one check-boxes with what you’re looking for on the site. Normal stuff like long-term relationships, friendship, or casual sex, and then some more unconventional options such as bondage and roleplaying. And then a bunch of other stuff Niall had no idea was even a _thing_ for some people.

He leaves all the boxes empty except for the one that says _one night stand_. And then he clicks _Join_.

After that he shuts off the iPad and hands it back to Sophia. “I’m off to bed,” he tells the pair. He knows that if he doesn’t go right now, he’ll probably just spend the whole night refreshing his profile to see if anyone replies.

“Night, mate,” Liam says, before calling out with a wicked grin, “Oh and by the way, it’s probably a good idea not to be here tomorrow night. Me and Sophia are having sex whether you’re here or not – and I’m sure we’d both rather you not!”

\-----

The first thing Niall does when he wakes up is grab his laptop off the bedside table and check his profile. Five messages. _Not bad_ , he thinks smugly.

His smugness disappears, however, when he opens his inbox to find all but one of the members who have messaged him have their profile picture set as a photo of their dick. Or it could be anyone’s dick, really, Niall supposes. He deletes the four messages without even bothering to read them. The remaining message is from somebody who has named themselves _AlwaysInStyle_.

Niall leans closer to get a closer look at their photo. It’s of a man who appears to be the same age as Niall which is a good start, at least. The guy also has shoulder-length hair which is curly at the ends and a gorgeous smile which lights up his whole face. All in all he’s quite an attractive person. So long as it’s actually _him_ in his photo.

Niall clicks on the message to open it and it simply reads: _Hello there._

The little green icon under his profile photo indicates that whoever AlwaysInStyle is, he’s online right now. Niall decides now is a better time than any to reply. He types about six different messages before finally settling on a simple _Hi._

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _Hello how are you?_

 **_Nialler:_ ** _good thanks yourself ?_

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _I’m good thank you._

 **_Nialler:_ ** _great_

When _AlwaysInStyle_ doesn’t respond for another couple of minutes Niall decides to hell with it, might as well put the offer out there on the table.

 **_Nialler:_ ** _so my flatmates are kicking me out tonight. do you wanna, you know ..?_

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _Hook up?_

 **_Nialler:_ ** _right_

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _How forward of you._

 **_Nialler:_ ** _hey you were the one who messaged me first !_

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _Relax, I’m just messing with you._

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _My place then?_

 **_Nialler:_ ** _sounds good_

 **_Nialler:_ ** _wait, your not gonna like murder me or something are you ?_

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _That’s a risk you’re gonna have to take._

 **_AlwaysInStyle:_ ** _No I’m kidding, I won’t I promise._

 **_Nialler:_ ** _good just checking ;)_

The guy sends his address to Niall which turns out to be a long tube journey away on the opposite side of London. Niall tells him he’ll see him later that evening and then logs off feeling both nervous and giddy at the same time.

\-----

“I’m off out,” Niall says as he passes Liam and Sophia on his way to the door. “To…y’know…” he trails off. He doesn’t want to call it a hook-up, it’s too crass for his liking. But at the same time ‘one night stand’ also sounds weirdly formal, so he just doesn’t say anything and hopes they catch his drift. Which they do.

“Heeey, Nialler’s getting laid!” Liam cheers and then he and Sophia swap high-fives. Probably to celebrate the fact that they finally have the flat to themselves rather than the fact that Niall was finally making an effort to move on.

“If I’m not back this time tomorrow call the police!” Niall yells over his shoulder as he slams the door shut behind him. He keeps his voice light-hearted but he has to admit he is a bit worried that this guy is going to turn out to be one of those creepy old men on the internet that everyone seems to warn you about but no one actually ever sees.

It starts snowing as Niall makes his way down the street to the tube station. It’s not heavy, but it’s enough to make Niall scowl at the dark sky and pull his coat hood up before it ruins his hair. He definitely doesn’t want to be showing up looking like a drowned rat.

Forty minutes later, Niall arrives at an apartment building. He triple checks the address the guy had given him, takes a deep breath and then finally buzzes the intercom with a shaky hand.

“One second,” says a muffled voice and then the door buzzes loudly, making Niall jump. He pulls open the door and heads up the stairs to find apartment No. 3.

\-----

Niall wakes up at 6:45 the next morning. He lies still for a few minutes, is almost falling back to sleep when a weird snuffling sound next to him makes him aware that this isn’t his bed and this isn’t his flat and he’s definitely not alone.

He has a moment of panic as he jolts into a sitting position. Being extra careful not to wake the sleeping form next to him, Niall rolls out of bed and creeps around the room to find his clothes from the night before. After he’s dressed he takes a final glance back to the bed, back to the mess of curls which is the only thing visible from under the covers. Then he tiptoes out of the room and to the front door.

It’s locked. It’s locked and it won’t open without a key. _Great._

Niall turns back around to look for the key. He searches the entire flat, including the bathroom, but his search comes up empty. He finds a key for one of the windows – briefly considers escaping out through there until he remembers that the apartment’s on the second floor and he’d rather not end up with two broken legs – but fuck knows where the door key is.

With a sigh Niall abandons all hope of managing to sneak out without being seen and heads back to the bedroom.

Once in the room, Niall undresses again and lies back down on the bed. He stares up at the ceiling for a while, tracing the pattern on the wallpaper with his eyes until they start to ache. Then he rolls onto his side and inspects the bedside table. It’s not very interesting; just an alarm clock and a handful of hair ties, so Niall reaches down to open the top drawer. He’s being a bit rude but he figures there’s nothing better to do while he waits to leave. Besides, he’ll probably never see this guy again anyway.

Inside the drawer is a jumbo pack of condoms and two tubes of lube. “Wow, bit optimistic,” Niall mutters to himself before pushing them out the way. The rest of the drawer is full of old batteries and pens and random instruction booklets – again, nothing interesting.

From the opposite side of the bed an alarm clock starts beeping, so Niall quickly rolls back over and pretends he’s been asleep this whole time. He slowly opens his eyes, faking a yawn as the figure next to him sits up and turns to face him.

“Oh, morning, Niall,” he says with a sleepy smile.

“Morning…” _Shit_. Niall can’t remember this guy’s name.

“Harry, hey,” he says with a little wave, still smiling so Niall knows he’s not mad, at least.

“Right, yeah, I knew that. Harry. Morning.”

“So do you normally stay for breakfast after these things or do you just go straight home?” Harry asks. “Because I make a mean omelette and–”

“Normally?” Niall interrupts, “What do you mean normally?”

“Oh, come on. You can’t expect me to believe this is the first time you’ve done this shit.” Harry still has that stupid smile on his face, although it’s actually turning into a smirk, Niall realises.

“Actually, you can!” Niall snaps. Harry knows nothing about him, how dare he accuse him of sleeping around? “And I don’t know where you get off being all high and mighty about it when clearly _you_ do this shit all the time if the contents of your night stand are anything to go by.”

“Relax, I was just saying.” Harry holds his hands up as if he’s afraid Niall’s going to attack him any minute.

It’s silent for a few minutes as the pair remain sat in bed next to each other. Niall manages to calm himself down until Harry says, “But seriously, when did you stop bothering to remember their names the morning after?”

“You know what? Fuck this, I’m off.” Niall scrambles out of bed and gets dressed again. He can’t stand being here any longer. How on earth Sophia had managed to convince him this was a good idea, he has no clue.

“Aww, leaving so soon?” Harry asks, voice tinged with sarcasm.

“Would have been long gone by now if I could find your goddamn door key. Where are you even hiding that thing?”

Harry doesn’t respond, just gets out of bed and pads into the kitchen. Niall – now fully dressed – follows him and watches as he opens a top cupboard and produces a set of keys, jingling them in his hand as if to taunt Niall. Niall just rolls his eyes. _Who the fuck keeps their door keys in a kitchen cupboard?_

Niall snatches the keys from Harry and goes to unlock the door. He swings the door open and throws the keys back to Harry who now stands behind him, watching.

“Well, it was lovely having sex with you!” Harry smiles, voice cheery.

“Yeah? Wish I could say the same thing about you.”

And with that Niall slams the door behind him, so ready to get out of this place and never see Harry again.

When he gets to the ground floor Niall goes to push the building door open. Only it won’t budge. He puts his back into it, gives it a shove as hard as he can, but nothing. Doesn’t move an inch.

Niall silently weighs up his options. He could go back upstairs and ask Harry to help. He could go knock on one of the other three apartment doors and see if anyone else will help, although Niall’s not sure they’ll appreciate being woken up by a stranger at 8am. Or he could just sit and wait until someone else needs to use the door.

He decides his best option is the first. So, as much as it pains him to do so, back upstairs to Harry’s apartment he goes.

“Forget something?” Harry asks when he answers the door.

“No, it’s um, it’s the door,” Niall says.

Harry frowns at the door he’s currently leaning on. “You forgot the door?”

“No, the main door downstairs,” Niall clarifies, “it won’t open so can you please just help so I can leave?”

“Oh, it’s snowing,” Harry tells him matter-of-factly.

“Okay, and?” Niall frowns. What does that have to do with anything?

“Like, a lot,” Harry explains without really explaining anything at all. Niall lets out a frustrated sigh.

“Look, I don’t give a shit about your weird obsession with the snow, can you just come help me open the door? Then you’re free to build all the snowmen in the world for all I care.”

“No, I mean it’s really, really snowing. There was a huge snowstorm overnight, I saw it on the news. We’re probably trapped in.” Harry says this in such a light tone, as if being snowed in for an indefinite amount of time was absolutely no problem whatsoever. Niall, on the other hand, can feel his stomach begin to fill with dread. He can’t be stuck here with _him._

“I can come give it a try though, I suppose,” Harry says and then ushers Niall out of his doorway and down the stairs.

Harry can’t open it either. With their combined strength, Niall and Harry can’t open it. They really are trapped.

“Fucking hell,” Niall mutters, not sure if he’s cursing the stupid snowstorm for trapping him here, or himself for not checking the weather before he went to a stranger’s house all the way on the opposite side of London.

Harry eyes Niall warily and then says, “You can come wait for it to clear in my apartment, if you want? Not that you really have much choice…”

Niall glances around the cold, empty hallway they’re currently stood in and concludes with a sigh that Harry’s right.

“Thanks,” he says gratefully and then follows Harry back upstairs for what he’s sure to be the longest wait of his life.

\-----

“Liam, you have to come help me, I can’t bear being here any longer. I kind of yelled at him this morning and now it’s all a bit awkward.”

Niall can’t believe it’s come to this. Hiding in the bathroom after what was supposed to be a simple one night stand, begging his best friend to come save him.

“Sorry, man, we’re just as much snowed in as you are.”

“Surely there’s something you can do. Anything. Please. I’m begging you.”

“Everyone’s stuck at the moment. We can try later...once the weather…calms…down.” Liam’s breath hitches at the end of his sentence, almost as if–

“Oh my God, Liam, are you talking to me in the middle of getting a blowjob?!”

“Course not,” Liam responds quickly, at the same time that Sophia yells “Yeah, he is!” in the background.

“Ugh, doesn’t matter, I don’t even wanna come home anymore. You guys are gross,” Niall says and then quickly hangs up before he ends up hearing what Liam sounds like when he comes.

\-----

“We’re not really gonna sit here in silence all day are we?” Harry asks. “Because the longer we avoid talking to each other the more awkward it’s gonna become.”

“And no, you asking me for the Wi-Fi password doesn’t count as conversation,” Harry points out when Niall opens his mouth to speak.

Niall closes his mouth again and says nothing. Just continues staring blankly at the TV.

“Okay, well if you won’t speak to me I’m gonna speak to you. I’m all for a bit of peace and quiet but this is just weird.”

“My name is Harry and I’m 21. I moved here from Cheshire two years ago and I like baked goods, warm sunshine and small animals who are nice.”

“I can’t believe we’re snowed in. In London,” is all Niall replies.

“Well lucky for you I went shopping yesterday and have a fridge full of food, which means it’ll be a few days before I have to start eating you,” Harry says with a grin and _this guy is fucking weird,_ Niall thinks.

“Your turn,” Harry encourages. “You know, what’s your name and where do you come from?” he says in a weird gameshow host voice when Niall doesn’t respond.

Niall shakes his head but decides he might as well humour Harry. “Well, you already know my name, I’m from Mullingar in Ireland and I like sports and music and not being trapped in some stranger’s house due to a freak snowstorm.”

“Hey, come on now. I wouldn’t really call us strangers anymore. Not after that enlightening conversation – I feel like I know you so well already,” Harry quips and Niall has to agree. He wouldn’t consider the two of them strangers anymore, either. Although that’s more due to the fact that his dick was in Harry’s ass just hours ago, and not because they’re finally talking to each other.

\-----

They end up watching a film. Or at least Niall ends up watching the film. Harry falls asleep ten minutes in and ends up slumped awkwardly to one side with his head resting on Niall’s arm.

Every so often Niall would steal glances at Harry before turning his attention back to the screen. But then Harry starts drooling and Niall doesn’t fancy having his arm covered in spit, no matter how peaceful Harry looks, so he gently nudges his arm to wake the sleeping boy up.

Harry wakes with a start, jerking his head up, cheeks colouring a little when he realises where his head had been resting and that he’d been drooling on Niall. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Sorry, you must’ve worn me out last night,” he winks and Niall blushes at the memory of an absolutely wrecked Harry spread beneath him the night before.

“So what did you say you do for a living?” Niall asks in an obvious attempt to steer the conversation away from dangerous territories. Harry’s face lights up.

“I’m a baker. I don’t own my own bakery or anything but I hope to one day. Until then I’m happy blowing the socks off the people of London with my incredible raspberry and white chocolate muffins,” Harry says with a smug grin.

“Wow, modest,” Niall deadpans.

“Hey, I’m only repeating what I’ve been told. In fact, I’ve been told they’re to die for multiple times now.”

“I’d certainly die to get out of _here_ ,” Niall mumbles under his breath. Normal people wouldn’t be able to make out what he was saying but apparently Harry has supersonic hearing.

“Hey, rude,” he says, but he doesn’t really sound that offended.

Niall just shrugs and looks away, although he does have the decency to feel a bit embarrassed of how rude he’s being. He’s sure the situation’s not ideal for Harry either, having the guy who was supposed to be a one night stand literally trapped inside his apartment for God knows how long.

“Sorry,” Niall offers eventually.

“It’s fine.” Harry stands up and makes his way towards the kitchen. “I am gonna have to show you have good my muffins really are, though. You can help, if you like,” he calls over his shoulder.

Niall stands up and follows Harry into the kitchen. Might as well.

Harry puts Niall on weighing duty. “Make sure everything’s accurate or you’ll ruin the whole batch,” he says intensely, and wow, Niall knows it's his job but Harry takes this baking malarkey a bit serious.

While waiting for Niall, Harry switches the radio on, flicking through the stations until he finally finds one which is playing music rather than droning on and on about snow, snow, snow.

It’s actually kind of pleasant, Niall thinks, the two of them working together, occasionally humming along when a song they recognise comes on the radio. They don’t really talk much except for when Harry tells Niall what to do next or when Niall double checks he’s done something correctly, and that’s fine with Niall.

Harry loads the muffin trays into the oven and then gets ready to clean up the mess they’d made. But then ‘ _Don’t Stop Me Now’_ by _Queen_ starts playing on the radio and all concentration is lost. Harry gives up cleaning and starts singing and dancing along, moving his hips in a way that’s proving to be very distracting to Niall, who can't help but lean against the fridge and watch the show Harry's putting on. Helps that his voice isn’t half-bad, too.

When it gets to the guitar solo, Harry grabs the wooden spoon out of the mixing bowl and brings it in front of him as a make-shift guitar. Niall watches as he performs an impressive spoon-guitar solo and then grabs a clean wooden spoon for himself. No point in letting Harry have all the fun, he figures.

Niall belts out the lyrics to the rest of the song using his spoon as a microphone, and the two of them rock around the kitchen with matching grins until the song finishes.

Harry gives an exaggerated bow, flinging his arms out dramatically so that some of the cake batter on the end of his spoon flicks off and hits Niall on the cheek.

“Oops,” Harry giggles, “Niall, you have a little something on your cheek.”

After he’s overcome the shock, Niall reaches into the bag of flour on the counter next to him and flicks some in Harry’s face. “So do you,” he says tauntingly.

“Oh, you’re gonna regret this, Niall,” Harry says and then grabs another bag of flour from behind him.

Niall and Harry launch into an all-out flour war, dipping and weaving all around the kitchen, making a grand old mess until finally Niall runs out of flour. His eyes dart around the room in search of his next ammunition. When he reaches for the egg carton Harry’s eyes go wide with fear.

“Okay, okay! Truce, Niall, truce!”

Niall begrudgingly puts the egg carton back. Just when things were starting to really get fun.

He looks down at the absolute mess they’d made of his clothes. Oops. He brushes himself down to get the worst of the flour off and then goes over to the sink to wipe his face and wash his hands. When he turns back around to look for the hand towel, Harry’s right there. Way too close for Niall to believe he has any innocent intentions. But Niall’s not sure if that matters.

Niall watches carefully as Harry glances down at his lips, then back to his eyes. He can feel the water dripping from his fingertips onto his thighs, soaking his trousers, yet he can’t quite bring himself to do anything about it. Oh well.

Harry takes a tentative step forward and closes the last of the space remaining between them. He starts to slowly lean in for the kiss, giving Niall plenty of time to back out if he wants. But Niall doesn’t want, and now Harry is close, so close, and Niall shuts his eyes and tries to keep his breathing steady.

But then the oven timer beeps loudly, giving both boys a startle. Harry jerks his head back, looking a little flustered as he meets Niall’s eyes a final time before going over to the oven to shut the beeping up.

Niall lets out a shaky breath and resumes his search for the hand towel even though his hands are mostly dry now, anyway. Then he takes a seat at the kitchen table, watching Harry’s back as he takes the muffins out the oven.

“Here, try one of these,” Harry says with a bright smile on his face and then plonks one of the muffins down on the table in front of Niall.

Niall takes a bite into the still-warm muffin. Harry’s right. These _are_ to die for. If Harry is trying to win him over with his magic baking then it’s definitely working. Niall moans in appreciation and then blushes slightly when he realises the noise he made. Harry’s smile breaks out into a full-on grin, clearly satisfied with the response, and then busies himself with setting the rest of the muffins out to cool.

\-----

“Hey you wanna play Monopoly?”

“Not unless you want me to end up hating you again.”

“Okay, well what about Scrabble?”

Niall gives Harry a disinterested face. Board games. Has Harry not heard of X-Box or PlayStation?

“Twenty questions?”

“Nah.”

“Come on, Niall. Help me out here.”

“Fine, twenty questions,” Niall relents. “You first.”

“Did you really think having sex with me was that bad?” Harry asks straight off the bat.

Niall frowns for a second but then remembers his throw-away comment from this morning. “No,” he answers honestly, “I was just saying that because I was mad and thought it’d hurt you.”

It’s silent for a while until Niall continues, “Besides it’s not like I have much experience to compare it to, anyway.”

Harry’s expression turns to panic as soon as Niall says this, his eyes comically wide. “Wait, you weren’t a virgin were you? Please tell me I didn’t take your virginity on a one night stand?” He asks desperately.

Niall smiles before putting Harry out of his misery. “No, calm down. I just meant I’ve only ever been with one person. The same person since the beginning of uni. Well, until a few months ago, at least.”

“Oh, what happened?” Harry leans back on the sofa and turns his body to face him. “Unless you don’t wanna talk about it. Don’t mean to pry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Niall says. It might be nice to talk about all this stuff with someone other than Liam or Sophia. “Not much to tell, really. I was madly in love with him and convinced we would last. He had other ideas and dumped me just after graduation. Said he needed some time alone. Wouldn’t have minded that much but I saw him a week later with some other guy.”

“Sorry,” Harry murmurs and gives Niall a sympathetic smile.

“Whatever, it’s fine now, I’m over it,” Niall shrugs and then runs his hand through his hair. “Hey, do you mind if I take a shower? Think I’m still covered in flour from earlier.”

“Sure!” Harry leaps up from the sofa. “You know where the bathroom is, clean towels are in the cupboard. You can borrow some pyjamas if you like?”

“Please.”

\-----

When Niall returns from the bathroom he’s met by a sea of sheets and blankets. Harry’s built a blanket fort. And by fort, he really means fort. The entire room is covered, and there are even fairy lights over by the entrance. Harry really went to town.

“Oh hey, you like it?” Harry appears out of the kitchen and comes to stand next to Niall. “I got bored.”

Niall shakes his head in disbelief. Normal people watch TV when they’re bored. Normal people waste time on the internet. Normal people don’t turn their entire living room into a blanket fort. But then if there’s one thing Niall has learned over the past day, it’s that Harry isn’t really a normal kind of guy.

Harry gestures to the fort as if to say: _go ahead,_ so Niall does. He crawls on in until he reaches the TV and then sits cross-legged to admire Harry’s work. A few minutes later Harry joins him, pushing a tray of food in front of him as he crawls to sit next to Niall.

“I made us pizza!” He grins. “And by ‘made’ I mean took out of the freezer and shoved in the oven for ten minutes.”

“I appreciate the effort,” Niall shrugs because hey, food is food, and Niall didn’t realise how hungry he was until Harry had placed the tray in front of him.

Harry flicks on the TV and the two of them sit there eating pizza and watching the news. Apparently it’s stopped snowing now, but the roads are still blocked and no public transport is running. Still stuck for a while, then.

“I’m so full,” Harry groans and pushes the now-empty tray to one side so that he can stretch his legs out in front of him and lie down on the floor. Niall feels weird towering above Harry so he does the same, ending up lying much closer to the other boy than he’d originally intended. Close enough so that he can feel the warmth of Harry’s arm on his own. Close enough so that if he wanted to he could easily reach over and hold Harry’s hand.

If he wanted to. Which he doesn’t.

Harry doesn’t say anything else and neither does Niall. They both just lie there staring at the sheets above them, the buzz of the TV providing some gentle background noise.

“Think you’ll ever have another one night stand?” Harry finally turns his head to face Niall.

“No,” Niall answers, and it’s the truth.

“Put you off for life, have I?”

“Something like that,” Niall jokes. He turns his head to meet Harry’s smiling eyes. “Nah, it wasn’t that bad. I might even go so far as to say I’ve actually enjoyed myself today.”

“Good,” Harry murmurs and turns to face the roof once more.

A couple of minutes later Niall feels Harry’s hand slowly creep into his own. It’s kind of warm and sweaty but it’s still nice, and he lets Harry know this by squeezing his hand and then rolling onto his side to face Harry with a gentle smile. Harry rolls to face Niall, too, their hands still awkwardly joined between them.

“So is this,” Niall gestures to the blankets around them with his free hand, “all part of some master plan to woo me?”

“That depends,” Harry answers.

“On?”

“On if it worked.”

“I think it worked,” Niall whispers and then leans over to meet Harry’s mouth with his own.

\-----

The following morning Niall is woken by a text.

**_Liam:_ **

_Snows a bit clearer now do u want us to come dig u out?_

**_Niall:_ **

_Nah think i’ll wait a bit longer thanks_

He sets his phone alarm for a couple of hours’ time and then rolls over to press his chest up against Harry’s back, pressing a gentle kiss to his neck.

Hopefully it will snow forever so he has an excuse to never leave.

**Author's Note:**

> (crappy title, i know)


End file.
